The invention relates to systems and methods for performing field inspections of natural gas infrastructure to detect gas leaks such as methane gas leaks, and for maintaining and updating geospatial database information related to natural gas infrastructure.
A common means of distributing energy around the world is by the transmission of gas, usually natural gas. In some areas of the world manufactured gasses are also transmitted for use in homes and factories. Gas is typically transmitted through underground pipelines having branches that extend into homes and other buildings for use in providing energy for space and water heating. Many thousands of miles of gas pipeline exist in virtually every major populated area. Since gas is highly combustible, gas leakage is a serious safety concern. Recently, there have been reports of serious fires or explosions caused by leakage of gas in the United States as the pipeline infrastructure becomes older. For this reason, much effort has been made to provide instrumentation for detecting small amounts of gas so that leaks can be located to permit repairs.
One approach to gas leak detection is to mount a gas leak detection instrument on a moving vehicle, e.g., as considered in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,095. A natural gas detector apparatus is mounted to the vehicle so that the vehicle transports the detector apparatus over an area of interest at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. The apparatus is arranged such that natural gas intercepts a beam path and absorbs representative wavelengths of a light beam. A receiver section receives a portion of the light beam onto an electro-optical etalon for detecting the gas.
Although a moving vehicle may cover more ground than a surveyor on foot, there is still the problem of reliably and accurately locating the gas leak source (e.g., a broken pipe) if gas is detected from the vehicle.